Never Hurts To Help

Chapter Six: The Theft

Sylvia has a plan to secure transportation for herself and her prisoner. Let's see how many hitches she encounters.

Thank you to everyone who is enjoying this story so far. This section of Wander and Sylvia's past is so intriguing to me, and I'm so happy I can share my take on it with others.

Enjoy!

Dusk.

Sylvia glanced out of the windows at the darkening sky, then at her prisoner beside her. Wander seemed to have trouble sitting still and he'd been very fidgety through the afternoon. Sylvia was used to waiting for long periods of time when pulling cons or trying to pinpoint the right moment during a heist, but the jittery little alien had made waiting significantly harder on this occasion. He had clearly tried to be patient, seeming acutely aware that he should be quiet in the library, and had managed it for an hour or so, lounging next to her on the window seat and providing whispered commentary on the passersby.

That had started to wear on him after a while, and he began to shuffle about, stretch and move around as much as he handcuff chain would allow. After a few minutes of this, he pulled a deck of cards out of his hat and began trying to get Sylvia to play a game with him. When she refused, still not in the mood to spend 'quality time' with her captive, he started doing card tricks. He was surprisingly skilled at it, and Sylvia found herself watching out of the corner of her eye as the cards shuffled through his hands, flipping back and forth and over. This led to Wander asking her if she wanted to see some magic tricks, her refusing multiple times, and eventually snatching the cards and telling him to 'sit down and shut the flarp up!', which he did, at least for a few minutes until his soft chatter started up again.

Which lead them to now.

Wander was currently staring out of the window, face pressed close to the glass, apparently telling a made-up story to himself about two of the people in the street below who, according to the orange alien's narration, had just found each other after being separated when their ship went down many years ago.

Sylvia stood, cracking her back and stretching after sitting still for so long. Her captive was surprisingly hard to ignore, even with years of practice tuning out bothersome targets. Maybe it was her inability to discourage him. No matter how harsh she was, he bounced back moments later, still friendly, cheerful, accommodating and infuriating. After unexpectedly sympathizing with him earlier today, Sylvia had no interest in learning more about the pest or engaging in his stupid games. All of that would just make the handoff harder. But it had been difficult not to respond to his questions or get interested in his card tricks. It felt a little like babysitting, not that she'd done that in a long time. Wander's sincere excitement and enjoyment of everything was almost infectious, and it was hard not to get drawn in, much as she needed to remain aloof from him for her own sanity.

She just had to keep telling herself why she was here, and where they were going. It would all be fine in the end when he was gone, she had a pile of money, and she didn't have to think about him any more.

Sylvia pulled her blue hood up over her face again, giving her captive's handcuff a tug to make him look at her. Wander turned from the window with a smile, cutting his commentary off mid-sentence.

"Hey, Sylvia!" he said brightly. "Was I talkin' too loud? Ya wanna see a…"

"No, I don't," she snapped. "Get up. We're leaving."

"Okey-doke!" Wander bounced to his feet, pulling his own hood up as he did so. "What'r we doin' next? Do ya want ta visit the night market? It's s'posed ta be real nice! Should be openin' soon!"

"No!" Sylvia ground out. It seemed to quickly be becoming her favourite word around the little nomad. "I told you already, I'm not here for sightseeing. We're going to steal a ride and get off this stupid rock."

Wander's face fell, and he rubbed one arm uncomfortably.

"Steal?" he asked in a small voice. "That seems a li'l dishonest, don't ya think?"

Sylvia blinked at the little furball. How did he not get it, still?

"Yep, sure is. That's kind of the idea," she drawled. She hoped her tone conveyed the full range of annoyance and disdain she was feeling. "If I want to get you to your 'reunion' on time we're going to need a ship."

"But maybe if we just ask 'em real nice…"

Sylvia silenced him with another tug on his wrist, harder this time so he stumbled towards her.

"Yeah, that'll be the day," she muttered. Then louder; "Not a chance. Come on, you little weirdo."

Wander was uncharacteristically quiet as he followed her downstairs. When she glanced at him, Sylvia noticed his ever-present smile was missing. He looked pensive, as if he were still thinking about what she'd said. Well, good. Maybe she'd finally succeeded in beating his situation into that thick, orange skull of his. She tried to tell herself she was feeling satisfaction at the possibility, but Wander's downcast features rankled her almost as much as his smile had. It was almost like she'd disappointed the pest, as though he'd thought better of her, which was ridiculous. It's not like I made any secret about who I am or what I'm doing, she groused, silently. And it's not like I should care about disappointing the brat anyway. She wasn't here to coddle her target; she was trying to deliver him to her client. It didn't matter if he was happy or sad or whatever. It shouldn't be something she even wasted brain space on.

She poked her nose through the library's thick, wooden door, taking in the street in the falling light.

The bar across the way was more crowded now than it had been earlier, various toughs having converged on the place as the light faded. Some of the ships she had seen previously were gone; their owners presumably finding some other hole in the wall to lurk in, but the one she'd had her eye on was still there; a sleek, black two-seater with a zreftank engine. It would be pretty fast, and more important; sturdy. With the way her luck had been going, Sylvia fully expected to have to navigate through an asteroid field or two on the way to the meetup.

She took a step forwards, but felt resistance for the first time, and turned to find that Wander hadn't moved. He looked up at her, eyes big and watery.

"Hey, Sylvia?"

"What?" she growled over the sudden unexplained sinking in her gut.

"Will ya return it afterwards? You'll be able to afford a new ship by then, right?"

Afterwards? After he'd been turned over, left to whatever fate that Lady Infinite joker wanted him for? Afterwards when Sylvia was relaxing on some beech with all the money she'd gotten for him?

"…Fine, I'll return it." Sylvia's voice was flat, her face forced into rigid immobility. A small smile formed on Wander's face, growing larger until he was beaming at her once again, eyes practically glowing with unfounded trust.

With no more hesitance, he walked out of the door, Sylvia staring after him for a moment before starting forward again.

What was wrong with him, seriously?

Every move they made brought her closer to selling him to a galactic villain, and all he was worried about some shady guy's ship getting jacked.

Sylvia felt like there were rocks in her stomach, grating against each other as she walked. She tried to tell herself she was just hungry. Of course she wasn't going to take this guy's ship back when everything was over. What was she going to do: waltz right up to whatever tough guy she'd stolen it from and say 'Sorry I took your ship. It was really important, I promise'? No, the only reason she'd said that was so the little nomad would move, so he'd stop looking at her like she'd kicked a puppy. She had no intention of actually doing it.

Wander had believed her when she said she'd return the ship. Well, so what? He trusted her way too much already. He was still treating her like they were best friends despite knowing what she was going to do with him. What was one more thing he believed about her that wasn't true? It was no skin off her nose what he thought. He's going to be gone soon, after all. The thought wasn't as comforting as it had been yesterday.

Sylvia had to give herself a mental shake to get her mind back on the matter at hand. She couldn't keep dwelling on her captive's naïve, stupid and completely groundless trust in her. She had to focus on what she was doing if she didn't want to end up on the wrong end of a blaster.

Motioning to Wander to stay quiet, Sylvia led them over to the side of the parking lot, just as though they were heading for the door to the bar. The sun was almost fully down now, and their dark cloaks helped them to meld into the background. As they passed by her chosen vehicle, she crouched suddenly, pulling her captive down with her, and using the body of the ship to shield them from the main road. They were out of sight from the windows of the bar as well, so all she had to worry about was someone coming into the actual parking lot. Wander seemed perfectly happy again, all worries assuaged, and Sylvia tried not to notice the comfortable smiles he kept giving her.

Carefully sliding a wire from her pocket into the seam at the bottom of the ship, Sylvia felt around with it until the bottom panel sprang open. Wander ooooed silently at her side, clearly impressed, but Sylvia didn't spare him a glance. She was already up to her elbows in wires and circuits as she worked to get the door open and the engine started.

"Hey, Sylvia?" Wander whispered suddenly.

"Shut up," she whispered back without looking at him. She could sense the little nomad dithering silently beside her for a few moments as she continued to work. Then:

"Sylvia?" He sounded a little more urgent this time.

"Just wait," she snapped. "I'm almost done." She was connecting the final two wires, making sure they were properly attached.

"Yeah, but Sylvia…"

"What?" Sylvia snapped, sticking her head out from under the ship's belly. A laser blast erupted at the same time, striking the ground between them, severing the chain of their handcuffs and burning a perfect, round hole through the hem of the blue cloak. Sylvia followed the blast's trajectory and found herself confronted with what was probably the ship's current owner, a purple, wiry looking crexagon, blasters readied in both hands and one foot. His glare told her he knew exactly what she was doing and was determined to make sure she didn't do anything ever again.

Not having time to think, Sylvia wrapped her tail around Wander to keep him with her, and ducked under the ship's belly to the other side just as the other two blasters discharged at the place where they'd been a moment before. She wrenched open the pilot-side door, giving the bottom panel a sharp kick to close it. She'd just have to hope those wires were secure enough.

The crexagon was fast; she'd give him that. Even as Sylvia slipped inside the small craft, slamming the door behind her, blaster shots struck the door, scorching the old paint.

"Too late!" she scoffed, pushing the button to start the launch. "See you never, you flab-drassing…" That was when she realized she was alone in the ship, tail coiled around nothing. She looked around wildly for Wander, finding him still outside and facing off against their attacker. The enraged crexagon was firing at the little nomad, who seemed to be avoiding the blasts completely without effort as he ducked and sidestepped, all the while chattering happily to his opponent.

"…An' I am real sorry about this," he promised, moving just a fraction to the side so that the laser aimed at his forehead seared into the pavement behind him instead. "But Syl's a great person, and she's gonna bring it back in a few days. I'll even throw in a cookie bouquet as a thank you for all your help – woah!" This last as Sylvia ducked out of the ship, crouching under the blaster bolts, snatched up the little alien again with her tail and tossed him through the door and into the passenger seat before diving back in herself.

She pulled the throttle, launching them into the air, and found herself glancing over every few seconds to make sure Wander stayed where she'd thrown him. Fortunately, he seemed content with whatever hair-brained thing he'd been doing, and was busy alternating between staring in rapture out of the window and grinning over at her like everything was fine and dandy.

Once they'd cleared the atmosphere, Sylvia finally relaxed, exhaling the breath she'd been holding until then. It didn't seem like they'd sustained any serious damage. The ship's former owner probably hadn't wanted to hit anything too vital. The paint job was ruined, but Sylvia didn't particularly care about that.

Out of danger for the moment, and with no more pressing needs taking up her attention, Sylvia rounded on the small alien next to her.

"Just what do you think you were doing?" she demanded. "We were escaping! That guy was trying to kill us for taking his ship!"

"Exactly." Wander's tone seemed to indicate that she was overreacting, just a tad. "This ol' ship obviously means a lot to him. I didn't want him to be a'worryin' that you weren't gonna bring it back."

"Why would you…" She cut herself off, taking a deep, steadying breath, glancing down at the controls as she leveled them out. When she looked back at him, Wander was holding his half of the handcuffs up to her on one furry orange palm.

"Figured ya might want this back," he said, apologetically.

Sylvia snatched the cuff, not all that surprised he'd gotten it off his wrist. She dropped it to the floor of the ship, then proceeded to dig out the key and unlock her own. They were useless now, not that they'd probably done much good when they were working. She supposed she was just lucky Wander was dumb enough to want to travel with her. She found herself staring at him again as he swung his legs back and forth, eyes taking in the vast expanse of space with anticipation. Her confusion about his motives forced her into speech again after a moment.

"Really though, why are you doing this?" she demanded. He beamed back at her glower, tilting his head slightly so he was looking up at her through his eyelashes.

"Well, 'cause I like helpin' folks, and I like you!" he announced, as if it was all completely natural. He paused, then tilted his head the other way, smile still perfectly friendly. "What about you, Sylvia? Why are you doin' this?"

There was no accusation in the question, no reproach and no resentment, yet Sylvia felt like she'd been punched in the gut. She had her reasons, of course. There were a lifetime of reasons she was in this situation, making her living this way, but none of them were reasons she felt like sharing with anyone, especially not her prisoner.

"None of your business, brat." She'd meant for the words to sound stern, to shut down any other uncomfortable questions he might try to throw at her, but instead she just sounded defensive, the way she did when her mom used to question her about cookies missing from the cookie jar.

Wander just smiled back, apparently not at all bothered by her refusal to answer him. Not a lot seemed to bother him. Sylvia turned away, focusing on entering the proper coordinates into the ship's computer. If all went well, they should reach planet Quarth by tomorrow afternoon. Then it would just be one more day until she saw the back of the cheerful little alien for good.

She hoped that would be the end of it, but she knew it wouldn't be, at least inside her head. Sylvia had a feeling she'd be thinking about Wander long after he was gone.

Thanks for reading!

Sylvia's starting to feel slightly uncomfortable about what she's doing. She's still doing it though, at least so far.

Wander really wants to make sure there isn't some poor bounty hunter out there without a ship.

Next up is probably "Learning To Swim" or "Anniversary."

See you soon!